2015-06-10 - Classes of Interest
The world is at relative peace. Superman has pledged to keep things calm for an hour if possible, Kon is on duty and active. Mia is actually standing on top of a tall tower in central Metropolis watching carefully for serious problems and taking it so seriously she absolutely had to be let alone to do it. So cute the way she thinks she's ready. Anyway. But it had to be done. Because Kara has a big job ahead of her too. She's going to be busy. Too busy to save jumpers or raining fire or whatever's wrong this week. She's got something ...scheduled. Kara has to be in class. Kara Zor-El adjusts her glasses, makes her her ponytail is just right and makes it to the door to class just in time. It's so much harder when you can't just go superspeed with everyone around you looking. See, this is why secret identities are such a pain. She doesnt know how Clark does it. But she's in her first class at Juilliard. The art teacher isn't even there yet, so Kara's arrival is apparently on time enough. The room is an open area with various students inside, all in various states of dress and each one claiming one of many art easels which are spaced about the room. They have stools, so most are sitting at one. Oddly only the ones closest to the door glance at Kara, and those go back to looking around the room. Not even a second glance, except one guy that seems to be staring at Kara's ...shoulder, actually. Odd. Kara Zor-El sits on a stool, looking forward. Then looks back at the one guy still staring at her. Then she looks at her shoulder to try to figure why he's still staring at her. Then looks back at him again and makes a little awkward wave at him, before re-adjusting her glasses on her face again. Rao, she hated wearing these stupid things. Even on Krypton, people didnt ever wear glasses. They cured myopia like... a millenia ago. The guy blushes then looks at his easel, which has a white sheet on it like all the others. Nothing else. He's kind of obviously not looking. Well, whatever. There's nothing special on Kara's shoulder after all. She can hear a familiar heartbeat in the room behind her though. Cassandra's here, being silent. Someplace. Oh there, behind and...right, the guy must have been looking at the girl in full Black Mask gear who's staying hidden in everyone's blind spots. Except Kara, she's not trying to hide from HER. At that point the teacher walks in. It's an african-american lady in a long flowery skirt with dirty hands, who walks to the main easel in the center and calls everyone's attention by clapping her hands together a couple times. "Welcome to Introductory Oils. I assume you all brought some writing materials, because we won't be starting on actual work til the second half of the class. Need to get you up to speed on the properties of oil in artwork and make sure you know how to handle brushes and treat your materials. I'm Mrs Huillat, your instructor." Kara Zor-El notices Cassandra. Geez, why is Cassandra here. In her class? This is so not secret identity-ish! She looks around a bit, then realizes she probably SHOULDNT be looking around, so tries to just look out of the corner of her eye. Though she's still trying to figure why the heck Cassandra is in here. Moving from behind one person to behind another, Cass is inspecting the classroom. Always when someone is covering for the motion. She slowly develops a visible grin on her face as she listens to people chat a little, glancing at Kara's face. The teacher says, "Oil paints are not as convenient as acrylics but the flexibility and texture is well worth it. If you take a long time to produce a painting then you'll appreciate how oil paint stays wet for a long time. Also, oil paint has a prestige value which is known around the world. All the famous paintings in history were done in oil, and it lasts the test of time with good color and put away the gum Mister Seymour. This is a professional class." Kara Zor-El rubs the bridge of her nose. She's trying to give me a heart attack. That must be it. She knows I'm invulnerable and thinks giving me a heart attack would be a nice challenge. Yep. She tries to do a little 'head jerk' motion at Cassandra for her to 'go away' but keeps stopping when people look at her and wonder why the blonde new student keeps spasming her head like she has an involuntary tick. Plus she's TRYING to pay attention to the class as well. Cassandra Cain is preeeeetty good at reading body language. She knows Kara's not comfortable with her being there. So there must be a really good reason for her to be ninja-ing through Juilliard. In Kara's art class. In full freaking costume. The guy who seems to be able to see her raises a hand, trying to get the teacher's attention, but she seems oblivious. "You will need to bring your own brushes and cleaner. We have glass jars and clean-up areas, and you will be cleaning brushes today and being shown how to get started on proper tool maintenance so you don't ruin good materials. We'll be working mostly on large sheets on the easels for now, but you'll need several good painting sheets and mixing oils. Because nobody is satisfied with stock colours." Cass slips around, heading toward the exit. She's smiling widely and whispers, soft enough to be heard by exactly one person in the room, 'curious'. Oh yeah, that's a GREAT reason. Earth-shaking. Kara Zor-El raises her hand. "Um.... Mrs Huillat? Can I be excused for the um... bathroom, please?" she asks. The teacher lets Kara go, being busy with a side problem of her own. Some odd kid is -insisting- that there's someone in a leather costume in the room and she's trying to get the class to stop laughing. The conversation is moving toward how if he's interested in asian girls in leather he's in the wrong class, and should probably audit a class with Ms. Wren upstairs at some point. Yes, Kara can use the washroom. Kara Zor-El gets up and heads out of the room and to the women's restroom. She looks around with X-Ray vision. No one inside. And she waits for Cassandra to just 'show up' like everyone in their weird 'family' does. What's really odd is that someone other than Kara noticed Cassandra.. Given the bat family's propensity to the whole ninja deal, Cass is relatively polite about it. She just goes to the rest room with her mask off and walks in. Leather outfit without the mask stands out but not nearly as much as the guy in a speedo walking down the hall. She leans in the doorway, grinning, and raises an eyebrow. Kara Zor-El yanks Cassandra into the bathroom before closing the door, she mildly warps the metal doorframe with her finger so no one interrupts. "Um... okay. Two things. First... there's one other people in that classroom that somehow noticed you." She again rubs the bridge of her nose. "Two... WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN MY CLASS?" Cassandra Cain spins around and regains her balance, managing to somehow make it look like she meant to do that. Kryptonian or not, girl's got standards. She keeps the grin, cocky as ever. "I am a detective!" she says, as if that makes sense in the slightest. "Learn...ing why you," she points a finger at Kara's chest, then at the classroom. Pauses. "Who saw me?" The smile vanishes like it was never there. She actually leans toward the door a little. Kara Zor-El just looks at Cassandra. "You know... Batman would have just put on a disguise and pretended to be a student or a janitor or a teacher or SOMETHING." She pauses, looking at the door. "Why am I here? Because I want to be an artist. You know. As a normal job? My dad always said I'd make a good artist, but everyone always figured I'd just go into the Science Gulid like my mom. And I can't exactly be a scientist on this planet when most of what I know would probably be way too advanced for this planet to incorporate for another... like.... 800 years or so." She peers at Cassandra. "Did you seriously sneak into class to watch me just to figure out why I was here? You know... you could have just asked me and I would have tol- wait look who I'm talking to about 'asking me stuff.' She leans against the door with a sigh, then looks at Cassandra. "And um.. yeah... that kid second stool to the right of me. He clearly saw you and no one was believing him." Cassandra listens as much as she can, though how much of the words are going through is anyone's guess. She rarely talks about how much her brain's processing. But at least she's listening seriously now, not doing impulsive things like going and hunting down the kid herself. Yet. She looks at Kara, right in the eyes, and when she's done she gives a slight nod as if accepting the explanation along with the rest. Probably. "I should not go back," she says, though it sounds more like a threat assessment than an apology. She puts her hands on her cocked hips and nods firmly. "You...are not happy. As Supergirl. Go do more with your...life." Kara Zor-El shrugs a little, awkwardly. "Well I'm not -unhappy- as Supergirl. But... you know... it can't just be that all the time. Every day, every single hour. I mean... I have this friend, and she's pretty normal. And I'd like to sometimes do stuff also that's... well.... normal. I mean I like helping people and I like the powers and stuff but I do sometimes think I can be doing more to leave an impression than just what my powers can do. And if I can't use science to do that, then art's a pretty good way to put a good impression on this planet." She pauses. "Sounds dumb, huh?" she asks. Cassandra's face is a study in responses. She looks concerned for her friend as Kara talks about needing to be more than just Supergirl, then slightly confused as she gets asked if it's dumb. She leans forward and looks Kara right in the eyes, then points to the mirror. There are mirrors, it's a washroom. "See...her?" Cass waits for Kara to look, then continues. Brokenly, but as well as she can. "You have to...live with her. For...ever. Try not to...fight with her. You will lose." Kara Zor-El looks in the mirror while Cass makes her very zen speech about 'being yourself.' "Yeah well.... if you mean the 'her' that was comfortable with being from Krypton and living on Earth after everyone she knows in her life had died... Honestly? That 'her' never existed to fight in the first place. And the 'her' who was comfortable as herself died when Krypton exploded." She pauses, making a little, curt smile, giving Cassandra a hug, before looking back at her. "I'm going to go back to class and try to learn some normal stuff about oil-based acryllic painting now. Like a normal person, okay? Maybe we can hang out later - we can go beat up some bad guys or ... I don't know... something. Okay?" She then turns back to the door, un-bends the doorframe to let it open again, and starts to open the door to go back to class. Cass doesn't stop Kara from going. She was never good with words. She wishes she understood everything that Kara just said, even. So hard sometimes. She sighs, just a little, and says, "You...are so...fragile some..times." Cryptic, maybe. But that's how she sees it. Of course, traditionally she would be gone when Kara turned back to look, but nope. She's still standing there, being less Batman and more her own person every day. Kara Zor-El turns back to Cassandra, and yeah - she's still there. She smiles a little. "Yeah well... I'm working on it, okay?" She finishes by saying, "Seriously - I'll see you around after class if you're still in the area." Then heads out the door and back to class. A voice calls out from the bathroom though. "Watch that guy for me!" And some girl comes in who's needed the toilet for a minute, was waiting outside wondering what was wrong with the door. Strange though. She looks around, and there's nobody here. Just the blonde girl who just left. Strange. Could have sworn there was someone else in here. Guess not.